Mourinho: I respect Wenger
26/01/2006 - 21:48:50Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho insists he has the utmost respect for Arsene Wenger and hopes he can maintain an amicable relationship with the Arsenal boss.
The pair have a well-documented rivalry with Mourinho last year labelling the Frenchman as a “voyeur” obsessed with Chelsea.
He later admitted he regretted the remarks and now Wenger has accepted an apology he intends to avoid further problems in the future.
The Portuguese told BBC Radio Five Live: “We have had these problems in the press – I think he is guilty and I am guilty.
“Because he is guilty and I am guilty and because we have enough intelligence to understand that we are both involved in the problems we have I think in the end we respect each other.
“Of course I think he is one of the best managers in the game and I hope we don’t have problems again in the future, but if we have we must have the personal respect that now and again we look like losing.”
Mourinho also believes foreign managers such as he and Wenger do not get the respect they deserve in English football.
He feels people who question why top coaching jobs should go to foreigners overlook his and Wenger’s achievements abroad.
Mourinho, who won the Champions League with Porto in 2004, said: “I often read – and it makes me laugh a lot – managers saying, ‘Why are they there and not me?’
“I think it’s a lack of respect. People have to respect what we did before.
“Why did Wenger arrive at Arsenal? Because he had great results before. Why did Mourinho arrive at Chelsea? Because he had great results.”
Mourinho famously called himself the “special one” when he was appointed Chelsea manager but claims he would not have needed to had he been give due credit for Porto’s success under him.
He added: “If I had come to my first press conference in England and people had treated me like a European champion – which I had become two or three days before – I wouldn’t have needed to say such a strong couple of words.
“I needed to show people I’m different, I’m not afraid, I’m confident, I can say things with a big percentage of risk.”
Mourinho led Chelsea to the Premiership title last season, their first league success for 50 years, and they are odds on to repeat the feat this year.
Their biggest disappointment of Mourinho’s first season in charge was defeat in the semi-finals of the Champions League but he firmly believes the club will win that competition soon.
He said: “Champions League is a competition everyone likes to win and enjoy. If you don’t do it you don’t do it but I believe one day we will do it.”
Mourinho says “he couldn’t be happier” at Chelsea and plans “to stay in English football for a long time” but admits he would one day be tempted by the chance to manage Portugal.
He said: “Yes I would like to manage Portugal to finish my career. I don’t know, 60 years old, something like that.
“I want to have the chance. I was never an international as a player and to manage my country in a competition would be a special feeling.”
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